"long" and "short" vowels

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:36 AM -0400 6/18/09, David Bowie wrote:
>From:    Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
>>somebody left unattributed

That was me, if anyone's interested.

LH

>>wrote:
>
>>>Yes, long [a] interpreted *quantitatively* (often
>>>represented as [a:] is pronounced with the same
>>>tongue position as short "a", but just prolonged.
>
>>So you're saying "mate" and "mat" vowels have the same tongue
>>position (I think close but not same).  And you say "mate" vowel
>>takes longer to say than "mat" (I say them over and over and they
>>seem the same).  This is quantitative, somehow?  (time measure and
>>physical tongue location?)
>
>Tom, please, *please*, PLEASE go get a copy of Peter Ladefoged's _A
>Course in Phonetics_ and give it a good read-through. It's short, and
>someone like you who's interested in the sounds of human speech should
>be able to hang with it, even the more technical bits--and it would
>really help avoid these talking-past-each-other moments. So, please?
>
>--
>David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
>     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org